Coffee with a Cop bringing police, citizens together in friendly setting

The Henderson Police Department participated in a program called Coffee with a Cop, a national initiative designed to forge relationships between law enforcement and communities.

Held at the Downtown Diner, citizens were invited to drink coffee with officers and talk about, well, anything.

That's exactly what they did.

A steady stream of residents filed into the restaurant to converse with law enforcement over cups of steaming coffee.

"This is great," said Sgt. Chris Cognac, a California police officer and one of the program's creators.

"Henderson should be proud. Besides Louisville, Henderson is the only other police department in Kentucky to participate" so far. However, he said, more Kentucky departments have shown interest and have been involved in the training.

Cognac, along with the program's two other creators, Capt. Keith Kauffman and Detective John Dixon, all of the Hawthorne Police Department in the Los Angeles area, were at the Downtown Diner on Wednesday to guide local officers in the process.

Cognac said they developed the program three years ago in an effort to "connect with citizens."

"We wanted to remove the barriers like the (police) car, the 911 calls, for people. We wanted a relaxed atmosphere for people to talk to us, and (for police) to get to know people," he said. "We wanted to identify people as stakeholders in the community just as we are."

It worked. Three months ago, Coffee with a Cop became a nationwide program.

"We travel across America about once a month planting seeds" of community policing, Cognac said.

"We developed a curriculum (for officers) ... how to (relearn) some things," he said.

For instance, police officers are trained to put distance between themselves and others for safety reasons, Cognac said. Sitting face to face, across a booth, while drinking coffee, he said, is something that takes some officers out of their comfort zone.

"An Alabama officer was nervous because he didn't know what to say" to a family that had come in to speak with him during Coffee with a Cop, Cognac said. "He's faced armed robbers" but talking with a grandmother and her family was difficult for him, Cognac said.

The three California officers held a two-day seminar in Evansville and Henderson for interested departments.

Meeting with more than 30 officers from Illinois, Missouri and Ohio as well as Kentucky and Indiana Tuesday at Old National Bank in Downtown Evansville, Cognac reviewed the philosophy of community policing saying it aids in problem solving and relationship building.

The Evansville Police Department initiated monthly Coffee with a Cop sessions in January, meeting with city residents at various Donut Banks.

"(Coffee with a Cop) is adaptable to every community," Cognac said. "We do it different in Los Angeles ... It's done different here."

"It doesn't cost police departments anything," Cognac said.

"I think we're making more of an impact" with coffee than with high-tech equipment, he said.

In Henderson, Officer Jennifer Richmond, HPD's public information officer, said "Some came just to speak with us about issues from a condemned house posing safety issues to they just wanted to meet officers face to face," Richmond said.

"It went very well, and we're very happy with it," she said.

The date of the next Coffee with a Cop in Henderson is still to be announced.

"The feedback (about the program) has been unbelievable," Cognac said. "You come to these and you remember why you became a cop."

"This is a growing movement," he said. "It's building community policing, one cup of coffee at a time."